God Hates Idolatry

Background Scripture: Ezekiel 14
Lesson Scripture: Ezekiel 14:1–11

Introduction

“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2). Does God feel pain like a wife or husband who knows their partner has been unfaithful? A godly marriage is built on conjugal love, and for one to divide that love with another outside the marriage bond constitutes a breach of faith and trust. This gives rise to the feelings of hurt, envy, and jealousy. Is this akin to the jealousy God experiences when his children love something other than Him? Godly jealousy is different from human jealousy; when a person is jealous, he wants to get even. When God is jealous, He shows no ill will. With bands of love, the Scripture says, He draws us like a husband’s love draws his wife. Like an unfaithful marriage partner bent on leaving a secure, loving relationship for a selfish whim, the children of Israel refused to be won back by God’s unselfish and forgiving love.

Key Verse

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve (Luke 4:8).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

The setting of Ezekiel 14 was likely around the year 594 BC. Ezekiel and the children of Israel had been taken captive by the Babylonians. He is thought to have been thirty years old when he began his prophecy. He evidently was married because the Bible later records when his wife died. The children of Israel, including Ezekiel, lived in a settlement called Tel Abib along the river Chebar that was sixty to a hundred miles from Babylon. About ten thousand Jews had been exiled, and many likely lived in the village where Ezekiel prophesied. His prophecy spanned about twenty-two years.

Ezekiel spoke to a people whom God had exiled due to their continual rebellion against Him. God, however, never has been nor is now interested in punishment for the sake of retribution. Is this one aspect of God that makes Him worthy of our respect and worship? Loving Christian parents will discipline only for their child’s ultimate good. When a child transgresses through disobedience, proper, corrective discipline will center on teaching a better way. God loves us much in the same way but in perfection. “For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness” (Heb. 12:10). We can be thankful we serve a God who loves us enough to correct us. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth (Heb. 12:6). This chastisement will yield peaceable fruits of righteousness in us. God is the Lord of heaven and earth, and the judgment his people were experiencing was a result of their sin.

David had a perfect hatred for the agents of wickedness (Ps. 139:22) because he understood how God hated sin and must judge it. Sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2) and blinds us. When our love becomes divided, it becomes a serious matter. “All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters (Hos. 9:15). There were far-reaching consequences for the children of Israel’s disobedience. Beginning at an early age, children need to learn the laws of cause and effect and consequence and reward through nurture and discipline.

Practical Truths for Today

Each one of us has a unique perspective, and although each perspective can have value, the real benefit comes in being willing to share it and open ourselves. When a perspective is shared, a great thing takes place in our heart and mind: we learn. It is very important that we continue to learn; as we expose our own thinking, the Holy Spirit teaches us. God intended for us to exercise our mind.

Let us consider two idols of this present world. One of them is comfort. When we worship the idol of comfort, we place ourselves at a great disadvantage, especially as we believe we are in the last days of the gospel dispensation. “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth (Luke 21:34–35). Surfeit means an intemperate or immoderate indulgence, a disgust caused by excess.1 Being overly comfortable in this world takes away from a vibrant, fresh Christian life.

Are we properly assessing the danger of the affluent age we live in? Generations past worked hard to provide for the basic necessities of life for themselves and their children. For many today, there is adequate money and room for extra things, yet parents work more and more with little or no extra time for family. This excess may be the proof of worship to an idol God hates. Former generations were keenly aware that every dollar counted; now many watch it loosely, no longer having to be careful with having just enough to survive. We buy what we want, go where we choose, and enjoy the so-called blessings of prosperity. With a lack of alertness and not needing to watch our inventory so closely, we begin to insulate ourselves with a very comfortable lifestyle. Comfort in itself is not bad, but like anything else in excess, too much will bring dullness and rob us of spiritual life.

Almost imperceptibly, my focus turns inward instead of to others. I have created an enemy of my soul, a comfort zone. I have lost my hunger and thirst for righteousness. Many others around me are without the bare necessities. Being enveloped in comfort, can I relate to them?

Empathy, in short, means placing myself in someone else’s shoes. Have we lost empathy for those in need? We pass by the street beggar in a hurry. “I don’t know what to say,” we convince ourselves. When we are no longer thankful for each meal and the ability to pay our bills, we have become too insulated from the realities of life. We start to think we deserve it better. God hates entitlement!

A hypocritical or false religion is another idol many worship. Ironically, the very thing designed to explain God to mankind can become an idol to us. A religion of pretense is a false gospel and not the religion referred to in the first several chapters of James. A pattern emerges from these verses of a religion of faith without works, an expression of words and heart that are both sweet and bitter, and one that shows preference to the popular and disregards the poor and unknown. When Christian living is merely a tradition or a routine lived year after year, a drudgery and something that is laden with requirement, it is not the truth and is something God detests. God is looking for sincerity and desire from the heart, a believer who wants Him more than all else.

An example of a religion without spirituality is found in the Jewish temple officials and Pharisees during Jesus’s time here on earth. They loved the the law and the Scriptures, but they did not love God. Religion was their idol. They built fence after fence, rule after rule, to protect themselves from temptation because they did not have the power of the Holy Spirit to keep them. For Sabbath day observance, many new laws were added. Dragging a chair across the floor because it would stir up dust like the oxen in the field was even off limits. Although this provides an extreme example, we, too, are capable of going to great lengths to set up some form of false worship. We may look the part so well but lack a warm, humble spirit that witnesses to others, or we may lack the sincerity of remaining separate from the world. God’s love lives in the spiritual Christian, and his only constraint is that of love. “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead (2 Cor. 5:14). The Holy Spirit is the law of life. To the true Christian, Jesus Christ is not only life, but a fence and a safeguard. “For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord (Prov. 8:35). This is not merely religion; it is the life of Christ.

Illustration

Two brethren were in conversation about faith. The one picked up from the other a spirit of fear. In consternation, he asked him, “Weren’t you raised in a stable Christian home? Why do you have so much fear?” The brother went on to explain that he was raised in an environment of “thou shalt nots.” This meant more of “Don’t do this” and “Don’t do that” and less of the light that comes with encouragement and loving care. They concluded that this kind of environment was a feeding ground for fear and distrust and not the basis of a settled foundation for promoting love and peace. God is to be the only object of our worship. He is unseen, so the foundation of our devotion to Him is trust and faith.

Questions

1. Is loving other things such as family, work, or ambition different than worshipping the molten calf in Exodus 32?
2. What is the connection in James 1:27 between visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and keeping oneself unspotted from the world?
3. Have we become somewhat cautious in using the word hatred when talking about sin? If so, why?
4. In a time where much is made of the love of God, is it more difficult to talk about God’s hatred?
5. 1 Merriam-Webster

Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).